Tag: Fundamentals

Last time we looked at adding or subtracting date parts using the DATEADD() T-SQL system function. This week we see how to calculate the difference between two date-time values using DATEDIFF() and DATEDIFF_BIG(). The syntax for both functions is identical:

We are now in the home stretch of the long-running series about dates and times in SQL Server and Azure SQL Database. This week we look at one of my favourite T-SQL functions when it comes to dates and times: DATEADD(). Syntax As with similar functions, DATEADD can do arithmetic on dates as well as-> Continue reading Dates and Times in SQL Server: DATEADD()

Last time we looked at DATEPART(). This post is all about the DATENAME() function. So many similarities There are many similarities between DATEPART and DATENAME. Where DATEPART returns the date or time part as an integer, DATENAME returns the part as a character string. This DATENAME function also takes two parameters: the date or time-> Continue reading Dates and Times in SQL Server: DATENAME()

In my previous posts in this series we’ve seen reference to Transact-SQL (T-SQL) functions that are used to get the specific part of a date and/or time (year, month, day, hour, minute, second, etc.). This week we’ll go through one of them and see how it works. Introducing DATEPART, a built-in function that takes two-> Continue reading Dates and Times in SQL Server: DATEPART()

Previously we looked at four built-in functions to get the current date and time in SQL Server and Azure SQL Database using Transact-SQL (T-SQL). We identified that out of the options provided, SYSUTCDATETIME() is the recommended method because it relies on Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), and uses the DATETIME2 data type which has a much higher-> Continue reading Dates and Times in SQL Server: more functions you should never use

It occurred to me that we haven’t covered the TIMESTAMP data type in this series about dates and times. TIMESTAMP is the Windows Millennium Edition of data types. It has nothing to do with date and time. It’s a row version. Microsoft asks that we stop calling it TIMESTAMP and use ROWVERSION instead. Much like DECIMAL-> Continue reading Dates and Times in SQL Server: What about TIMESTAMP?

This post continues our look at date and time data types in SQL Server. SQL Server 2008 introduced new data types to handle dates and times in a more intelligent way than the DATETIME and SMALLDATETIME types that we looked at previously. This week, we look at the last new data type, DATETIMEOFFSET. If you’d like-> Continue reading Dates and Times in SQL Server: DATETIMEOFFSET